President Bola Tinubu has extended his Tinubu Europe vacation by a few days and is due back in Nigeria at the weekend, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said on Monday, 21 September 2026, as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar asked who is constitutionally in charge while Vice President Kashim Shettima is also outside the country.

President Bola Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August for London, then travelled to Paris, where he met President Emmanuel Macron of France and businessman Vincent Bolloré.

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Bayo Onanuga said the president had stayed in touch with events at home and continued to give directions from abroad.

One of those directions, the Presidency said, was an independent panel to examine the deaths of 37 illegal miners in Minna, Niger State, after they were held by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

“President Tinubu will return to Nigeria at the weekend, following the extension of his working vacation by a few days,” the statement said.

While President Bola Tinubu has been away, Vice President Kashim Shettima has stood in at some official events.

George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has done the same and will continue to do so.

Vice President Kashim Shettima left Abuja on 20 September for New York to attend the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

The general debate opens on Tuesday, 22 September, and he is to deliver Nigeria’s national statement.

On the political track, Bayo Onanuga said Abubakar Yari, Director General of the Presidential Campaign Council, had been leading talks with prominent traditional rulers.

The Presidency also dismissed as irresponsible what it called a baseless insinuation by Atiku Abubakar and a United States based lobbying firm about the president’s absence from the UN meeting.

Atiku Abubakar struck a different note. In a statement on his verified X account on Monday, he said the original three week annual leave had expired and that a constitutional question now arose, especially with the vice president also abroad.

“Today, Nigerians are entitled to ask a very simple constitutional question: Who is in charge of Nigeria?” he said.

He pointed to Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, which says the president should send a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives before going on vacation, after which the vice president acts as president.

“President Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August. The Presidency publicly announced a three-week vacation. Yet, to date, Nigerians have not been shown any constitutional letter transmitting presidential authority to Vice President Kashim Shettima,” Atiku Abubakar said.

If such a letter exists, he said, the Presidency should publish it at once.

If none was sent within 21 days, he argued that the National Assembly should explain why the further procedure in Section 145(2) had not been used.

“This is not a matter of political convenience. It is a matter of constitutional order,” he said.

He also objected to governing by assumption or by posts from Europe. “Nigeria cannot be governed by assumptions. It cannot be governed by presidential social-media posts from Europe. It cannot be governed on autopilot.”

Atiku Abubakar cited the 37 deaths in NSCDC custody in Minna, the price of petrol and wider economic strain as reasons why, in his view, the country needed visible leadership.

“These are not ordinary times. Yet the President is abroad. The Vice President is abroad. The Senate President is abroad. And Nigerians have not been told, in the clear constitutional language required of a serious democracy, who is exercising the powers of the President,” he said.

He added that a private dinner with President Emmanuel Macron might have diplomatic value, but could not replace the succession procedure written into the constitution.

“The Constitution does not recognise a ‘working vacation’ as an alternative system of presidential succession. It provides a procedure. That procedure must be obeyed.”

The Presidency has not, in Monday’s statement, published the Section 145 letter Atiku Abubakar demanded.

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It has said the president is still directing affairs, that George Akume will keep representing him at home, and that the delayed return remains scheduled for the weekend.